Days Like These
by Nora Mutao Frost
Summary: Stingray One shot after Don't Let Go: Mika slowly finds her way to the house Ray bought them. She had been adopted by him a year ago and its Christmas time. Although she doesn't expect him to be there she just muses about the year together with him.


_**Authors Notes: This is a one shot following up a year after my fic Don't Let Go. So read it first before reading this.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Stingray**_

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 _ **Days Like These**_

 _ **One Shot**_

Mika had left out early that afternoon. Didn't even ask her caretaker if she could go. She just went. She knew where she was going. She and Ray had been there once before the day he purchased the home. It was a place she should go if something were to happen to him. More then likely someone would come after her too. The house was hers under her name so she can keep it long after he was gone. She also had her own personal bank account that was attached to his own. It didn't have as much as he did. Just enough to buy clothing, and books she needed for school. She wasn't the spending type so she never really touched it till she needed it a lot. The last time she used it was in October when it became way to cold for her. She had bought a heavy dark blue jacket.

She climbed onto the bus to go into the city. She sat down up front and watched out the window. She had gotten tall enough to see over the front barrier now. It had only been a year since meeting Ray and she honestly didn't expect him to be at the house at all. But it was the day before Christmas and she didn't want to be in the orphanage at all. It was full of either all to happy kids who didn't really understand that they had no parents, or the children who knew all to well that they weren't going to be there for the holidays. Mika on the other hand looked at her watch knowing perfectly well that she did have a dad, he was out there somewhere, and she would wait for him forever.

Finally after nearly an hour she got off the bus and went into a store. There she walked in and began to grab a few choice items. Just many just enough to last a day. Which for a tiny belly that wasn't much at all.

"Excuse me dear are your parents here?" The cashier asked. Mika smiled at the woman and shook her head.

"They're waiting." She said and gave the woman the twenty dollar bill and gathered up the two bags she had gotten.

It was all to often that Mika got people like that talking to her. She hated being treated like a child even though she was one. A genius in a childs body was all she knew on that subject.

Finally she got to a suburb near the store. The windows were dark, and the grass was unmowed. Their was a lot of junk mail in the mailbox. Beside the house was a drive way with a garage. Mika walked up to the door and put the key into the slot and waited for a few seconds before pulling it back out again. She didn't even turn it. Turning it would activate the defense systems. Although she felt maybe she should have, but then again she wasn't exactly on the run anymore. She walked in and pulled out a flash light. She left the groceries in the kitchen while she went to the closet and pulled up on a switch. It turned on all the lights. She put the groceries away and went back outside to fish the mail out of the mail box. Nothing of personal was in there just junk. She few it into the fire place and lit it with a match. Soon enough their was a fire crackling. Ray had cut enough wood and left it on the back porch for at least a week. Finally as she sat with her forehead against the sliding glass door to the back porch much like she had the night she met Ray. Just like back then it began to snow. She sighed walking into the bathroom. She was good and sweaty from her walk from the store to the house. She decided a nice long bath would be alright.

Pulling on her clothing and walked out of the bathroom. The clock stuck five now and she decided it would be best to start dinner. She wasn't to good at it and she had to pull a chair over to the stove. A six year old making dinner in an empty house in the middle of a small suburb in Oregon...she sighed looking at the grilled cheese.

A low creaking noise caused her to panic. She turned off the stove and she turned off all the lights. She ran into Rays room. It was the most fortified in the whole house. She felt her heart beating in her ears. She tried not to make to much noise with her breathing using a pillow to stifle it. She wasn't sure how long she was in the room before she heard another noise. A low chuckle.

"Grilled cheese for dinner? Really?" She dropped the pillow and she peaked out of the bedroom at a man she knew very well. That darned black jacket, and mop of dark black hair. A few more scratches and bruises then normal but yes...it was Ray.

"You might want to put that back." To Mikas surprise she had the gun in her hand. She didn't know how to use it, but in a bind she was sure it could still do some damage. She put the gun down on the ground before running into her dads waiting arms. She kissed his cheek putting her head back down on his shoulder.

"Hey there kiddo. Missed me did you?"

There were days like this that she would always remember. Days that stand out from all the rest. The birthdays, the holidays, the just because days, even a few daddy/daughter dances. It was days like these that she lived for. It never hit her that those days might end. Ray may not show back up to that suburban house in the middle of a tiny town. Leaving a young girl to wonder just what happened. Just where did her hero go? Yet with a job as dangerous as Stingrays anything goes. Nothing is sure, and nowhere is safe.


End file.
